In what seemed a campaign appearance, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon met Wednesday with former Arab League chief Amr Moussa, now a candidate for the Egyptian presidency. Inner City Press has asked Ban's spokesman about the meeting -- "would Ban Ki-moon meet with other candidates in Egypt?" -- and attended the photo opportunity before Wednesday's meeting. Along with Ban, UN political chief Lynn Pascoe, and senior Ban adviser Kim Won-soo were in attendance. Pascoe joked that the first talking point should be about Moussa and Syria: he seemed to say, "Mister Secretary General, is your first ...

EGYPT: And Finally, To VoteAs Egyptians head to the polls Wednesday and Thursday to elect the country’s first post-Mubarak president, local analysts say that voting results – even on the very eve of the balloting – remain impossible to predict. “Contrary to recent opinion surveys, the Muslim Brotherhood candidate led the expatriate vote,” Amr Hashem Rabie, expert in domestic […]

Must-Reads from Around the World, May 11, 2012Fruit Flare-Up – China’s turned to a new weapon in its dispute with the Philippines over contested South China Sea islands. State-run People’s Daily gleefully reports that “fruit from the Philippines will receive stricter inspections for harmful organisms at Chinese borders, a potential setback for exporters from the country.” Meanwhile, the Philippine Star says the Philippine government denied it had helped organize the biggest protests yet Friday staged by civic groups over the spat. The Cost of Trade – Following revelations that global bank J.P. Morgan lost $2 billion at a London trading desk last night, the BBC argues that this will “put a dent in the bank’s profits” but will not come close to “eliminating” the bank, which the piece describes as having “a reputation for being one of the better managed and more cautious” of the global banks. It suggests the “surprise factor” of the incident will reopen debate over whether